Chapter 78: Look At Me

The bustling atmosphere in Yi Jun’s hospital room had quieted.

The barrier Espers surrounding the bed and the guiding machine all glanced at Seung Ho.

They were awaiting his orders.

“Team Leader Kim.”

Seung Ho, who was standing a short distance from the bed, talking on the phone, leaned closer to his phone.

While he was relaying Kang Yi Jun’s condition, Team Leader Kim’s voice suddenly cut off.

It seemed there was a problem.

“……”

He maintained his upright posture and sharpened his hearing.

Synthesizing the sounds of various people calling for Team Leader Kim, it seemed he had been attacked by an unregistered individual.

It seemed certain that he didn’t have the luxury of returning to Yoon Bodam.

The phone, which seemed to have fallen to the floor, wouldn’t reply from Team Leader Kim’s side, so he hung up.

Seung Ho, who gazed down at the dark phone screen for a moment, then shifted his eyes to the bed where Yi Jun lay.

He stared at the bed, which was still quiet, with no sound except for the machine humming all day.

Kang Yi Jun was asleep.

“Should we lower the barrier? Or—”

“Maintain it.”

Seung Ho, who approached the bed, immediately replied to the barrier Esper.

Yi Jun, who had shown movement for the first time in two months, had reportedly closed his ears to the questions from the researchers and doctors, muttered to himself, and then fallen back asleep.

When Seung Ho arrived at the hospital room after hearing the news, Yi Jun was already breathing evenly.

His wave levels were still in the 90s, but his guiding absorption rate had increased.

The researchers rejoiced, saying that Esper Kang Yi Jun now had the will to recover.

Until now, guiding had been forcibly injected using all sorts of guiding machines, but now Kang Yi Jun was trying to absorb the guiding first.

As if he was finally ready to wake up.

“Call me as soon as he wakes up.”

Seung Ho, looking down at the soundly sleeping Yi Jun, said to the barrier Espers.

During the two months he was in a rampage-crisis state, Yi Jun had not slept properly.

According to his attending physician, he was likely to often doze off or spend more than half his day sleeping for a while.

Since he had also appeared dazed and sleepy even when awake, he was in a state that required a lot more recovery.

“Are you coming back soon?”

A barrier Esper asked Seung Ho, who was about to leave the room.

Considering Esper Kang Yi Jun’s aura was calming down, it didn’t seem necessary for three team-leader level Espers to remain guarding him.

If Team Leader Han came, they intended to reduce the number of barrier personnel.

“I’ll contact you.”

With that short reply, Seung Ho left the hospital room.

The barrier Espers remaining by the bed only shrugged at Han Seung Ho’s familiar cold demeanor.

Their attention was drawn to Esper Kang Yi Jun.

They hadn’t believed the researcher who first discovered his movement when he exclaimed, his eyes wide with surprise.

When he said Yi Jun had twitched his hand, they closely observed, but inwardly they doubted it.

It seemed unlikely that he would regain consciousness in such a terrible state.

Wave levels over 90% cause severe pain and abnormally high anxiety for an Esper.

They had expected a major commotion if Esper Kang Yi Jun were to open his eyes.

‘Ah…’

However, Esper Kang Yi Jun only showed a very quiet reaction.

The barrier Espers were surprised when Yi Jun twitched his hand again and strengthened their protective shield, but it was an unnecessary response.

Yi Jun only opened his mouth slightly and tightly clutched the blanket.

His eyes and mouth were covered by a black cloth and an oxygen mask, so his true expression couldn’t be read.

He slowly loosened his hand clutching the blanket and only muttered as he touched his hardened skin.

‘As rumored, he truly isn’t normal.’

***

Seung Ho, leaving Yi Jun’s hospital room, went to find Bodam.

He went down to the guide-exclusive hospital ward floor and stood in front of a familiar door.

“What is the matter?”

One of the gatekeepers asked Seung Ho, who was only staring intently at the door.

Team Leader Han, who had arrived late at night, looked even sterner than usual.

As a barrier Esper with considerable field experience in Zone 1, he had often seen Seung Ho.

Even though he always maintained a consistently expressionless face, like a robot, there were subtle differences.

When he held his chin slightly higher and lowered his eyes a little, that day became one where no one should make a mistake.

It meant Team Leader Han’s mood was exceedingly sharp.

Crash!

Seung Ho and the barrier Espers, who had been watching his demeanor, simultaneously listened closely to the sound inside the hospital room.

Something had fallen and shattered on the floor.

A barrier Esper immediately knocked on the door and asked loudly if he was okay.

When no answer came, he immediately opened the door.

“Guide!”

The barrier Espers rushed in at the sight of the guide lying face down with his hand draped over the bedside table.

It seemed he had knocked over the glass on the table to make a sound, seeking help from outside.

Bodam was heaving his thin shoulders, his head deeply bowed.

The hand that had knocked over the glass was trembling convulsively.

“Are you o—”

The barrier Esper, who was about to grab Bodam’s shoulders as he lay prone, suddenly recoiled.

The Esper standing behind him also merely looked down at the bed, not calling for a doctor.

Their hands and feet were bound by Seung Ho’s restraining barrier.

“Yoon Bodam.”

Seung Ho, who broke through the A-class barrier Espers’ protective shield in one go and entered, approached the bed.

The faces of the barrier Espers, trapped in the sound-blocking shield, their mouths agape, turned red.

No matter how much of a multi-ability user Team Leader Han was, they were barrier ability users who were considered aces in their own right.

It was unbelievable that he, who was officially known to be of a lower rank, had broken the barrier so easily.

“Get up.”

Seung Ho’s upper body, which had approached close enough to almost touch the bed, lowered.

He bent one leg and sat down to check Bodam’s prone state.

His right knee, which was always held straight, instantly lowered to the floor.

Broken glass fragments touched him, but they merely crumbled under the Esper’s tough skin.

“Lift your head.”

His hand finally touched Bodam’s shoulder, which remained bowed without a reaction.

The shoulder, which had been trembling as if from cold, stopped shaking the moment Seung Ho’s hand touched it.

‘Yoon Bodam,’ his low voice repeated the name.

Still, there was no reply.

Seung Ho, who only rolled his eyes to examine the limp body on the blanket, then grabbed both shoulders and lifted Bodam’s upper body.

He didn’t seem injured, and there was no trace of blood.

Even the unstable trembling that had persisted after his hand touched him had subsided.

His unwavering, cold gaze fell on the white face hidden by hair.

“Look at me.”

Transparent liquid, pooled at the small, pointed chin, was falling onto the blanket, drop by drop.

His hand, which had been gently holding Bodam’s shoulder, dropped and moved towards his chin.

“Look at me.”

Yoon Bodam was crying.

“Heuugh…”

Seung Ho took hold of Bodam’s tear-stained chin and lifted his bowed head.

It was a face he had seen often.

A face with round eyes deeply furrowed, eye rims red, and crying.

It was the expression he had seen most often for six months.

Yoon Bodam cried at any time.

He would clench his teeth as if he didn’t know how to hold back, but tears would burst forth first.

The Bodam Seung Ho remembered was mostly either on the verge of crying, crying, or looking exhausted after crying.

“What’s wrong?”

He didn’t realize that his gaze had always gone to Bodam first whenever he cried.

“Are you hurt?”

After asking why he was crying, he asked about his symptoms.

His long fingertips were now wrapped around Bodam’s damp cheek.

He didn’t have a fever.

The lukewarm cheek tilted slightly towards Seung Ho’s palm.

Bodam, who was sobbing out tears to the point of gasping for breath, did not pull away from Seung Ho’s touch.

Instead, his trembling and even his crying subsided at Seung Ho’s touch.

He even moved his wet lips and made a broken sound.

“It… hurts…”

“Where?”

Bodam, whose consciousness was faint, only repeated that it hurt.

It wasn’t his body that hurt, but his heart.

It wasn’t the pain Bodam was feeling.

It was Yi Jun’s emotions.

Yi Jun’s fear, his vision obscured by black cloth and his body bound to the bed, was being conveyed to Bodam.

Just as Espers and guides linked by imprinting share each other’s emotions, a half-imprint also showed the same symptoms.

Seung Ho’s mouth, which had opened to continue speaking, lost its voice.

A small hand, with residual trembling, rose onto his palm, which had been cupping Bodam’s cheek.

Bodam, gripping Seung Ho’s hand tightly, mumbled faintly.

He poured out ceaseless tears, saying it hurt.

His hand, which had been lying on the blanket, pointed to his thin chest.

Bodam, who gasped for breath and let out a long cry, pressed down on his aching chest.

His upper body, leaning forward, touched Seung Ho’s shoulder, then he leaned completely.

He seemed to be out of his mind.

“D-don’t… go…”

After mumbling about pain, he grabbed the shoulder he was leaning on, asking him not to go.

Nestled in Seung Ho’s embrace, he sobbed that he was scared.

Seung Ho, who had even avoided physical contact for guiding, hugged the clinging body even deeper.

There was nothing else he could do.

“What are you scared of?”

The heart Bodam pointed to as hurting was a place Seung Ho’s healing ability couldn’t reach.

Bodam, wrapping his arms around Seung Ho’s neck and pulling him close, continued to express his fear.

He buried his head in Seung Ho’s shoulder, as if begging him not to leave, and cried endlessly.

Seung Ho, wrapping his arms around Bodam’s back and gently lifting him, sat on the bed.

He hugged the crying Bodam and uttered words unlike himself.

“What should I do?”

Telling him not to cry didn’t seem like it would stop him easily.

As he repeated a name he hadn’t called in a while, he inwardly questioned his own emotions.

To this unfamiliar emotion, there was only one clear answer.

He wished Yoon Bodam wouldn’t cry.

“I… I want to go home…”

Bodam, who had cried for a long time, finally said he wanted to go home.

He continued his voice, broken by sobs, struggling to speak as he cried that he wanted to go home.

He felt as if a very large screw had come loose from his head.

Through that hole, numerous emotions passed.

Emotions that seemed not his own.